It’s a scene familiar in many Decembers. A Christmas tree, Christmas music, Christmas cookies, old friends getting reacquainted, new friendships forged, and even a visit from Santa.
Day: December 11, 2019
Let us sing as we prepare for Jesus’ birth
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Years ago, Sister Victricia chose seventh and eighth graders for the Kieler Immaculate Conception grade school choir. Miraculously, I was chosen. At rehearsals, however, whenever I sang, Sister stopped playing the piano and stared at me. My voice was changing. To survive her stares, I began to lip-sync long before I ever heard of it.
A positive thinking friend told me, “Maybe Sister was admiring your singing.” If so, why did she quit staring after I stopped singing? Dad often said that the Louisburg Langes can’t sing. Fr. Ron Lange, my missionary first cousin, agrees.
Perhaps this is a senile illusion, but now I think I can sing a little better at Mass. Because of old age, however, when celebrating Mass I often refrain from singing hymns that I don’t know to conserve my limited energy for parts that I proclaim and for the Gospel reading and homily.Latinos celebrate Christ the King with Bishop Hying
On Sunday, Nov. 24, the Latino community of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Madison and from nearby parishes came together to celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Most Reverend Donald Hying, bishop of Madison, celebrated their 6:30 p.m. Spanish Mass with Fr. Bart Timmerman, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish.
This Advent seek God’s will, not your own
Today my daughter was searching our house for a recorder, an instrument for her school music class.
Over the years we have acquired a couple of recorders, but, used by different children at various times for school, their whereabouts are not always known. (Yes, unfortunately things do get lost in our house sometimes.)
“Should we write a note to the teacher, saying we have a recorder, but we just don’t know where it is?” my daughter asked.
“No, we’ll find it,” I said, pulling open and peering into desk drawers in our home office. “Go look in your brother’s cubby.”
This Advent seek God’s will, not your own
Today my daughter was searching our house for a recorder, an instrument for her school music class.
Over the years we have acquired a couple of recorders, but, used by different children at various times for school, their whereabouts are not always known. (Yes, unfortunately things do get lost in our house sometimes.)
“Should we write a note to the teacher, saying we have a recorder, but we just don’t know where it is?” my daughter asked.
“No, we’ll find it,” I said, pulling open and peering into desk drawers in our home office. “Go look in your brother’s cubby.”
This Advent, invite the Lord to enter in
In my columns during the season of Advent, I am reflecting on the Kerygma, the basic proclamation of the Gospel in its essence.
Last week, I pondered the first part of this Good News, which is the radical, unconditional, and eternal love of God for us, a love that we cannot even begin to grasp! Our experience of the Lord’s saving mercy is the basis of our spiritual response to God’s remarkable initiative, as Jesus breaks into our lives in all joy and promise.
A talk on the Hill: A calling for justice
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This is the second article in a two-part series about Bishop Robert Barron address to an audience of senators, representatives, and Capitol’s Hill staffers at the Library of Congress.
Next, I referenced the strange and illuminating account in the sixth chapter of Isaiah regarding the call of the prophet. Isaiah says that he saw the Lord in the temple surrounded by angels crying “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
The Hebrew term here is kadosh, which carries the sense of “other.”
God is source of existence
God is not one being among many, not one true thing among true things; rather, he is the source of existence itself, the unconditioned ground of all that is — and this entails that he is greater than all of the particular projects and desires that customarily preoccupy us.
A talk on the Hill: A calling for justice
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This is the second article in a two-part series about Bishop Robert Barron address to an audience of senators, representatives, and Capitol’s Hill staffers at the Library of Congress.
Next, I referenced the strange and illuminating account in the sixth chapter of Isaiah regarding the call of the prophet. Isaiah says that he saw the Lord in the temple surrounded by angels crying “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
The Hebrew term here is kadosh, which carries the sense of “other.”
God is source of existence
God is not one being among many, not one true thing among true things; rather, he is the source of existence itself, the unconditioned ground of all that is — and this entails that he is greater than all of the particular projects and desires that customarily preoccupy us.
Latinos celebran al Cristo Rey con el Obispo Hying
El domingo, 24 de noviembre, la comunidad de la Parroquia Santo Tomás de Aquino en Madison y de parroquias cercanas se unió para celebrar la Solemnidad de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, Rey del Universo. El Reverendísimo Donald Hying, obispo de Madison, celebró su Misa en español de las 6:30 p.m. con el Reverendo Padre Bart Timmerman, párroco de la Iglesia Santo Tomás de Aquino.
Book signing at St. Peter Church, Ashton
ASHTON — St. […]